No one knows what's causing it, but everyone can hear it: a loud, bone rattling "boom" that shakes the sky, causing locals to phone their friends (and the police), asking "what the hell was that?"

According to Mayor Chuck Burtcher, the noises are nothing new either, admitting that he started getting asked about them three months ago, but even he doesn't know what's unnerving his town, musing that the booms could possibly be from oil exploration (though they're too far from town to cause such a noise, reported KFOR NewsChannel 4)

Other residents have their own theories, ranging from local shooting ranges to a lone man at the edge of town who owns a cannon and fires it off for fun. One of the most logical explanations for the strange noise were exploding transformers, but the local electric company says they haven't had any transformers blow lately.

A resident from the neighboring town of Mustang shared his own experience with the noises:

"[I heard the] same sounds in Mustang around 2:30 am Thursday morning. It woke me up, I got up, but couldnt figure out what it was. I spoke to my neighbor the next day and she heard it, too. Her dogs jumped up and started barking."

Another resident figured that the two most recent booms, due to their timing, could have been "meteors from the Quadrantid Meteor shower breaking the sound barrier as they entered our atmosphere".

Anchorage - Southcentral Alaska authorities didn't have any immediate cause for a loud booming noise heard Thursday night and reported by Channel 2 viewers, but seemed to rule out sonic booms from aircraft in responses Friday.

Reports of the sounds were posted on Channel 2's Facebook page Thursday evening by people ranging from Eagle River to the Mat-Su Valley. Some reports placed the phenomenon between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday, with Channel 2's Late Edition airing a brief update on the reports. Viewers' descriptions of the sound varied, but those who heard it generally agreed that it was a strong and persistent noise.

"I live in Peters Creek and I heard several loud noises outside and then muted the television," Channel 2 viewer Rachel Lee wrote. "After about a minute of silence, there was a rumble and my chandelier started to shake. I thought it might have been an earthquake but I looked online and there weren't any listed at that time; it was 8:05 p.m."

"About the only thing I can compare it to is someone going down a dirt road really fast," viewer Deb Spaulding wrote. "(I)t was that sort of rumble."

"I was in the garage and I heard it. It (lasted) for a while," wrote viewer Michelle Thomas Hanks. "At first I thought it was the wind until I stepped outside... My (neighbor's kids) looked for what was making that loud noise and they could not see anything just kept hearing the loud noise."

Law enforcement agencies were similarly stymied by the reports, with Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Dani Myren saying no noise complaints were listed for Thursday or Friday. Dispatchers on duty overnight didn't relay any reports of the booms to the next shift, which came on duty at 7 a.m.

Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters says troopers also had no noise complaints from the region, with AST dispatchers also not relaying any updates during a 6 a.m. shift change.

"There wasn't anything there big enough for them to pass on or be told about," Peters said.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory had no reports Friday on the noise itself or any volcanic activity that may have caused it. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center's latest listed earthquake was a magnitude 4.6 temblor on Dec. 24, centered 40 miles northwest of Valdez.

The National Weather Service forecast office in Anchorage also didn't have any possible causes, saying there was some shower activity in the area Thursday but nothing more severe in terms of weather conditions.

With no immediate answers on the matter Lee, the Peters Creek viewer, echoed the confusion of many people about the source of the noise.

"What was the horrific boom in the Redbank area," asked Lisa Russell Fields. "People are saying it sounded like a plane crash or explosion."

"I also heard the "big boom" this morning. So did a lot of other people, it sounds like a close cannon or something and will shake the whole building/house," said Jennifer Lee Stokes Kleine.

"Does anyone have a concrete explanation for the loud boom that shook houses in Lexington County around the Redbank/YMCA/Old Barnwell Road area this morning around 8:30 a.m.," said Mary Frances Henry Bell.

So, what was it? The Lexington County Sheriff's Department doesn't know either.

"Law enforcement officers and public safety personnel have been unable so far to determine the source of the noise," said Sheriff's Department spokesman Maj. John Allard. "No explosions have been reported."

A similarly loud explosive noise happened last year in the South Congaree portion of Lexington County.

Residents reported then being woken up to the boom around 8 a.m. on a Sunday. Seismographs at the University of South Carolina even measured something in the area.

However, there was never any cause determined for that loud noise either.

What might lurk beneath Antarctica’s 5 million square miles of ice was the subject of speculation by sci-fi writers in the 1930s. One of the icy products this subgenre of Antarctic Gothic horror spawned is HP Lovecraft’s novella, At the Mountains of Madness, in which scientists drill beneath Antarctica’s ice — only to discover horrid things preserved there. Now, scientists are finally enacting Lovecraft’s scenario: Over the next several weeks they are drilling into three subglacial lakes hidden beneath thousands of feet of ice in Antarctica.

What they will find as they sample the lakes and send cameras into their bellies remains to be seen. But one thing is already clear: Lovecraft was actually right about far more than his readers could have realized.

In Lovecraft’s story, a team of researchers from Miskatonic University flies into an unexplored region of Antarctica and bores through the ice. They discover fossil dinosaur bones with disturbing puncture and hacking wounds that cannot be attributed to any predators known to science. Soon after, they uncover the source of some of those wounds: fossils of a leathery-skinned beast with a “five-ridged barrel torso … around the equator, one at [the] central apex of each of the five vertical, stave-like ridges are five … flexible arms or tentacles.” The beast’s body is topped by a “five-pointed starfish-shaped” head.

The fossils aren’t quite dead.

As they thaw in the sun, the beasts reawaken. They slaughter 12 members of the expedition, carefully dissecting one of them and carting away another as a brown-bag lunch.

Two surviving members of the expedition find an ancient city entombed in the Antarctic ice sheet which once belonged to the beasts. There, they discover a disturbing truth: This race of five-armed Elder Ones had arrived from space over 600 million years ago. They spawned all life on Earth, including that destined to evolve into humans … in order to provide a source of food.
Lovecraft wrote At the Mountains of Madness at a time when Antarctica’s interior remained mostly blank. Airplanes had only just begun to venture inward from the coasts — Robert Byrd made his famous, first-ever flight over the South Pole in 1928 — and Lovecraft’s novella, written in 1931, echoes that expedition. It’s easy to smirk at Lovecraft’s five-armed monsters, described ad nauseam, including precise dimensions in feet and inches. It’s easy to conclude that Lovecraft tried too hard to invent something that was truly alien.

But the ensuing decades have shown that Lovecraft was right on one profound matter: Antarctica’s cold wastes do indeed preserve some very old things, some of them dead — and some, still alive.

Geologists exploring one end of the Transantarctic Mountains (perhaps Lovecraft’s “mountains of madness”) have found shreds of plants, dead for up to 20 million years, protruding from the gravel and fluttering in the wind. These mosses represent the last stand that plants made on the continent before being extinguished by endless winter. The subsequent cold and dry have preserved them from decay. Plop a bit of this moss into a bowl of water and its delicate leaves and stems inflate like soft sponges. The scattered twigs of southern beech trees that are found here still contain enough organic matter that they smolder and smoke if placed over a flame.

Not all of the deep-time holdovers are dead, though. Antarctica’s cold coastal waters preserve an ecosystem like no other Earth. Scientists call it Paleozoic, reminiscent of between 250 and 540 million years ago. It is dominated by echinoderms, the ancient phylum of animals including starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, and lily-armed crinoids, whose bodies have five-fold symmetry — which brings us back to Lovecraft’s race of five-tentacled Elder Ones mummified beneath the ice.

“They sound like echinoderms to me,” said Richard Aronson, a veteran Antarctic marine biologist at Florida Institute of Technology. “Hilarious.”

Lovecraft points out that his Elder Ones inhabited the deep sea before emerging onto land. He goes to great lengths to describe the holes at the top of their heads, analogous to the water circulation pores in starfish. The author may have been more correct than he ever knew.

Lovecraft wasn’t the first author, or the last, to tell of scary things in Antarctica.

Jan 3, 2013

This is actuallp part 2 of this series, but part 1 was focused on the authors visit to the LUCIFER and VATT telescope array in Arizona. I've got a lot of respect for the authors. They reference all of their work, and aren't into making predictions. Is this speculative? Of course. But there's good reason for this speculation, starting with the Bible.
And of focus here is the fact that the Vatican is proposing "extraterrestrial saviors" that will soon be arriving.

By Tom Horn and Chris Putnam

In our last
entry top Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno stated how contemporary societies
may soon “look to The Aliens to be the Saviours of humankind.” [i] To illustrate
the theological soundness of this possibility, Consolmago argues that humans are
not the only intelligent beings God created in the universe, and, he says, these
non-human lifeforms are described in the Bible. He starts by pointing to angels
then surprises us by actually referencing the
Nephilim:

Other heavenly
beings come up several times in the Psalms. For example, look at the beautiful
passage in Psalm 89 that calls out, “Let the heavens praise your wonders, 0
Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies
can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord? ...
The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it
-you have founded them.” Likewise, God asks Job (38:7) if any human can claim to
have been around at the creation, “when the morning stars sang together and all
the heavenly beings shouted for joy .”

Are these “heavens,” “holy ones,” those “in the sky,” the “morning
stars ... and heavenly beings” more references to angels? Or do they refer to
some other kind of life beyond our knowledge?

…And these are not the only non-human intelligent creatures mentioned
in the Bible. There’s that odd, and mysterious, passage at the beginning of
Genesis, Chapter 6, that describes the “sons of God” taking human wives. With it
is a frustratingly oblique reference to “The Nephilim ...the heroes that were of
old, warriors of renown .”

Most Biblical scholars suggest that the Nephelim and the Sons of God
in Genesis can be explained away as a left-over reference to the creation
stories of the pagans who surrounded ancient Israel, that they were written by
the kind of people whose culture saw anyone Not Of My Tribe as being unspeakably
alien. Likewise, the references to heavens and stars singing and praising the
Lord can be seen simply for the beautiful poetry that it is.

But whether you interpret these creatures as
angels or aliens doesn’t really matter for the sake of our argument here. The
point is that the ancient writers of the Bible, like all ancient peoples, were
perfectly happy with the possibility that other intelligent beings could exist.
[ii]

Read that again, then ask yourself: Did the Vatican’s top astronomer
actually mean to use the story of the Nephilim from the Bible as an example of
the kind of “space saviors” man could soon look to for salvation? This
incredible assertion is only topped by what he says next. In quoting John 10:16,
which says, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I
must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one
shepherd,” Consolmago writes: “Perhaps it’s not so far-fetched to see the Second
Person of the Trinity, the Word, Who was present “In the beginning” (John 1: l),
coming to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10: 18) not only as the
Son of Man but also asa Child of other races?” [iii]

Do Vatican scholars actually believe Jesus might have been the
Star-Child of an alien race? Does Consolmagno and/or other Jesuits secretly hold
that the “Virgin Birth” was in reality an abduction scenario in which Mary was
impregnated by ET, giving birth to the hybrid Jesus? As incredible as that
sounds, you should prepare for the unexpected answer as this series
unfolds.

All this would seem impossible theology if not for the fact that
other high ranking Vatican spokespersons—those who routinely study from the
“Star Base” (as local Indians call it) on Mt. Graham—have been saying the same
in recent years. This includes Dr. Christopher Corbally, Vice Director for the
Vatican Observatory Research Group on Mt. Graham until 2012, who believes our
image of God will have to change if disclosure of alien life is soon revealed by
scientists (including the need to evolve from the concept of an
“anthropocentric” God into a “broader entity”), [iv]and the
current Vatican Observatory director, Father Josè Funes who has gone equally
far, suggesting that alien life not only exists in the universe and is “our
brother” but will, when manifested, confirm the “true” faith of Christianity and
the dominion of Rome.

When the
L’Osservatore Romano newspaper (which publishes nothing that the Vatican doesn’t
approve) asked him what this meant, he replied: “How can we rule out that life
may have developed elsewhere? Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a
brother,’ and ‘sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial
brother’? It would still be part of creation”[v] and believing in the existence of such is not contradictory to Catholic doctrine. [vi]

Brother Guy Consolmagno with Pope Benedict XVI

Such
statements are but the latest in a string of recent comments by numerous Vatican
astronomers confirming a growing belief (or inside knowledge?) that disclosure
will be made in the near future of alien life, including intelligent life, and
that this encounter will not challenge the authority of the Roman Catholic
Church.

This is a brief review of Foxe's Book of Martyrs by Chris White. If you aren't familiar with the very rich history of Christianity and the many heroic martyrs for the faith, this is for you. This video includes details from Christian History of the deaths of James, Mark and Andrew. From Jesus' ascension to modern times, Christians all over the world have suffered and died for their faith. This should be required reading for all Christians today. In other words, good stuff!

Clipboard in hand, Dr Francois Nosten worked his way down a ward of malaria patients. He stopped in front of five-year-old Ayemyint Than, who sat to attention and smiled. The smile told Nosten as much as his lines of graphs and figures.

Ayemyint Than, 5, is being treated for malaria in northwestern Thailand.

“She’s doing well,” he said, moving to an older man, whose pale face and dull sunken eyes told a very different story. “Day five, and he’s still positive?” he asked another of the doctors. “That’s not very good. It means he was very slow to clear the parasite, no?”

To Nosten, it was further evidence of an alarming rise in resistance to artemisinin, currently the front-line drug in the treatment of malaria. He fears it could be the start of a global “nightmare” in which millions of people could lose their lives.

Armed MQ-9 Reaper drones like this one are used by both the U.S. military and the CIA. Photo: USAF

The President Barack Obama administration does not have to disclose the legal basis for its drone targeted killing program of Americans, according to a Wednesday decision a judge likened to “Alice in Wonderland”.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon of New York, ruling in lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times, said she was caught in a “paradoxical situation” (.pdf) of allowing the administration to claim it was legal to kill enemies outside traditional combat zones while keeping the legal rational secret.
The opinion comes months after 26 members of Congress asked Obama, in a letter, to consider the consequences of drone killing and to explain the necessity of the program. The use of drones to shoot missiles from afar at vehicles and buildings that the nation’s intelligence agencies believe are being used by suspected terrorists began under the George W. Bush administration and was widened by the Obama administration to allow the targeting of American citizens. Drone strikes by the Pentagon and the CIA have sparked backlashes from foreign governments and populations, as the strikes often kill civilians, including women and children.

In the end, however, the government’s claim of national security trumped the Freedom of Information Act. According to Judge McMahon:

… this court is constrained by law, and under the law, I can only conclude that the government has not violated FOIA by refusing to turn over the documents sought in the FOIA requests, and so cannot be compelled by this court of law to explain in detail the reasons why its actions do not violate the Constitution and laws of the United States. The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me; but after careful and extensive consideration, I find myself stuck in a paradoxical situation in which I cannot solve a problem because of contradictory constraints and rules — a veritable catch-22. I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the Executive Branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.

Despite numerous public comments on the CIA’s drone attacks in far-flung locales such as Yemen from various government officials, including former CIA Director Leon Panetta, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, the government is taking the position in court that it would have to eliminate you with one of its drones if it explained the legal basis of the program.

January 1, 2013 – CLIMATE – The year started in the United States with a mild flu season but ended up being marked by deadly outbreaks of fungal meningitis, West Nile virus and Hantavirus. Tainted steroid medication has been cited as the cause of the meningitis outbreak that killed 39 people. Weather contributed to the worst outbreak of West Nile virus since 2003 and an unusual outbreak of Hantavirus in California’s Yosemite National Park.

Transmitted by infected mice, Hantavirus is a severe, sometimes fatal syndrome that affects the lungs. West Nile can cause encephalitis or meningitis, infection of the brain and spinal cord or their protective covering. As of December 11, 5,387 cases of West Nile virus had been reported in 48 states, resulting in 243 deaths, the CDC said in its final 2012 update on the outbreak. The 2003 outbreak left 264 dead from among nearly 10,000 reported cases. A large number of cases this year occurred in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi where there are large mosquito populations. CDC and state officials have said that rainfall in the spring and record high summer temperatures contributed to the severity of the outbreak by affecting mosquito populations, which transmit the disease by biting humans and animals.

Health officials said that only a small percentage of cases of West Nile virus are reported because most people have no symptoms and about 20 percent have mild symptoms such as aches and fever. One in 150 people with West Nile virus develop other illnesses such as meningitis and encephalitis.

The biggest outbreak in nearly two decades of Hantavirus, which emerges in dry and dusty environments, cropped up during the summer in 1,200-square-mile (3,100-square-km) Yosemite National Park, killing three of 10 infected visitors. The National Park issued warnings to 22,000 people who may have been exposed to the rare disease, and 91 Curry Village cabins in the park were closed in late August.

In early September, a 78-year-old judge named Eddie Lovelace was rushed to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Thought to have had a stroke, he died a few days later. After a large outbreak of fungal meningitis was linked to tainted steroid injections, Lovelace’s cause of death was revised. He became the first documented death in a meningitis outbreak that has infected 620 people and killed 39 in 19 states.

The New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, was closed after investigators found that it had shipped thousands of fungus-tainted vials of methylprednisolone acetate to medical facilities around the United States. The steroid was typically used to ease back pain. More than 14,000 people were warned that they may have had an injection of the tainted steroid. Doctors continue to see new cases of spinal infections related to the steroid, and cases of achnoiditis, an inflammation of nerve roots in the spine.

The outbreak led two Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of representatives to introduce legislation to increase government oversight of compounded drugs. And what lies ahead in 2013? “While there are some trends we can predict, the most reliable trend is that the next threat will be unpredictable,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden. -MSNBC

In case you haven't followed this stuff closely in the past, in tests of the now daily chemtrails laid out across the U.S. and other nations, aluminum, a very finely ground aluminum, is the most frequently detected ingredient. In other words, minute aluminum particles are being sprayed everywhere. This leads to some interesting possibilities. And perhaps other reasons for the spraying of aluminum into the atmosphere.

Good for Hobby Lobby. While the decay of Constitutional Law will eventually prevail, it's good that Christians are will to stand for what their beliefs, no matter what the cost. Obama, Sotomayor and others still have a choice to repent...or one day face the Judge of all. (I would repent, but I'm not a pagan politician...)

With their legal options at an impasse for the time being, and with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against an emergency injunction on their behalf, the owners of the Oklahoma-based retailer Hobby Lobby have decided they will defy the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that requires employers to provide their employees with free contraception — including the so-called “morning after” pill that has been found to induce abortion in pregnant women.

On December 26, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor refused to grant Hobby Lobby’s request for an emergency injunction blocking implementation of the contraception mandate. As of January 1 the federal government will require thousands of American business owners — even those who say the action violates their moral and religious convictions — to begin including free birth control with their health insurance plans.

Because David Green, CEO of Hobby Lobby and the Mardel Christian book retailer, which have a combined total of over 14,000 employees, has refused to honor the mandate, he and the other owners of the Christian-based company will likely face an estimated $1.3 million in federal fines per day. “The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law,” explained Green as he filed a lawsuit against the mandate last September — a suit that is still pending in the courts. “I say that’s a choice no American and no American business should have to make.”

Kyle Duncan of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing Hobby Lobby in its legal claim, said in a statement after the Supreme Court ruling: “The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees. To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”

In a statement provided to the Oklahoman newspaper, Duncan confirmed that the businesses are “not going to comply with the mandate. They’re not going to offer coverage for abortion-inducing drugs in the insurance plan.” As for the potential fines Hobby Lobby and Mardel face, Duncan said, “We’re just going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Jan 1, 2013

January 1, 2013 – CLIMATE – The weather outside was truly frightful across much of the US and UK this holiday season. In the US, a powerful winter storm whipped up heavy snow, icy winds and a record number of tornadoes in late December, causing at least 15 deaths. Such storms are not unusual at this time of year, but an especially strong jet stream made the storm more intense, says meteorologist Greg Carbin of the US National Weather Service. “One of the more remarkable places was Little Rock, Arkansas,” says Carbin. “It shattered the prior record for snowfall on Christmas Day.” Little Rock, which hadn’t seen a white Christmas since 1926, was hit with more than 25 centimeters of snow. At the same time, warmer air mixing with the southern border of the system created thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast that spawned 34 tornadoes across four states. The storm then churned north-east, dumping 30 cm of snow or slushy mix on parts of the Midwest and New England. Thankfully the storm was fairly fast moving. “It was pretty much a one-day event in any region of the country,” says Carbin. In the UK, heavy rain saw many rivers burst their banks and roads and railway lines washed away. It is the inevitable end to what looks like being the soggiest year since records began. -New Scientist

December 31, 2012 – EARTHCHANGES – In recent weeks, worldwide earthquake data indicates an increase in the magnitude and a significant increase in the frequency (magnitude 5.5+) of earthquakes. Current graphs clearly show an alarming worldwide trend of increasing earthquake strength and frequency. These results are in agreement with the USGS statistics page, which shows an increase in the frequency of stronger earthquakes (M 5.0+). These trends also show that the depth of earthquakes has diminished, they occur closer to the Earth’s surface. Shallow earthquakes occur along fault lines and are due to the accumulation of stress. Earthquake waves can also propagate far enough to trigger other earthquakes; this may explain the noted increase in earthquakes. Certain scientists have stated that the increased frequency of earthquakes is due to the increased number of detection instruments installed worldwide. This would cause more sensitive earthquakes to be measured. However, these graphs show an increase in stronger earthquakes; it is also important to note that the earthquake Richter scale is base-10 logarithmic. The fact that the world’s population has increased doesn’t help, more people are affected by these events. There is increased media availability and attention. However, due to recent events, it is now easy to convince even the average person, that there are more and more strong earthquakes occurring worldwide. –Guardianlv (excerpt)

Largest increase in 62 years: According to the Costa Rican Volcanology and Seismology Observatory (OVSICORI), after the magnitude 7.6 earthquake which occurred on September 5th, 2012, the country registered the highest level of earthquake activity it has seen in 62 years. The strongest earthquakes in Costa Rican history occurred in 1950 in Nicoya, with a 7.8 magnitude quake, followed by the 2012 earthquake that occurred in the same area, of a 7.6 magnitude. After the September 5th earthquake, OVSICORI reported 75 earthquakes that were felt by residents during the 4 months after the main event. 2010 saw a total of 6,245 earthquakes, in 2011 there were 5,483, and in 2012 the total was 11,049. –Inside Costa Rica

Japan shaking more: Japan had experienced a little over 3,000 noticeable earthquakes in 2012, nearly 60 percent of them aftershocks from last year’s massive tremor that devastated the country’s northeast, Japanese media reported on Monday. Quoting the Japan Meteorological Agency, the NHK broadcaster reported that a total of 3,134 quakes had been felt across Japan until Sunday (December 30) which is about 1,000 more than the annual average from 2001 to 2010. An analysis of seismic waves indicates that there were more than 10,000 noticeable quakes in 2011. While the number of quakes decreased from that of last year, seismologists continue to monitor frequent seismic activity. They urged people to be on the alert for possible strong quakes with a magnitude of at least 7 or those triggering tsunami. The March 11, 2011 quake and the tsunami it triggered had left more than 15,000 people dead or missing besides wreaking havoc in Japan’s northeast, including the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that leaked radiation forcing the evacuation of more than 160,000 residents. –RTT

Over 5,000 quakes shake Mexico: In 2012, 5,043 earthquakes, including more than 1,484 with their epicenter in Chiapas, shook Mexico, according to the State Civil Protection System, local media reported. That number is likely to increase before the year’s end. In fact, two four-magnitude earthquakes in the Richter scale were reported some 67 kilometers southwest of Ciudad Hidalgo on Friday, but there was no visible damage. The State Civil Protection System noted that seismic activity is caused by the convergence of three tectonic plates in North America, Cocos and the Caribbean. Coincidently, at the onset of 2013, a 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Oaxaca Mexico. –Prensa Latina

Koreas report increase in quakes: A study has found that, including North Korea and the seas, our country experienced twice as many earthquakes this year as in the past. According to the Korea Meterological Association on the 27th, there were 56 earthquakes on the Korean Peninsula this year through last month, twice the average since record-keeping began in 1978. The highest number, 60, was recorded in 2009. It’s also over ten more than the average of 43.6 recorded each year since digital detection methods were begun in 1999. There were nine which reached at least 3.0 on the Richter scale and four which were strong enough to be felt by people. Other than in the seas the largest number, 11, were in the Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do area, followed by four in Jeollabuk-do and two each in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongsangnam-do. In North Korea seven earthquakes were recorded, and there were none in the capital region of Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, and Incheon. There were 12 in the West Sea, nine in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and seven in the South Sea. The strongest earthquake of the year so far occurred on May 11th at 12:46 pm, five kilometers east-northeast of Muju-gun in Jeollabuk-do, registering a 3.9 on the Richter scale. Houses and windows shook in Muju and Namwon, at an intensity level of IV. In Daegu and Daejeon the intensity was of level II but there was no damage. The increased number of earthquakes in recent years is likely due to the effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2010, the KMA said. In this country there were 42 earthquakes in 2010, 52 last year, and 56 as of Christmas of this year. Kim Yeong-shin of the KMA said that “around the world in recent years there has been an increasing number of earthquakes… since the Great East Japan Earthquake there has been a slight decrease as energy levels seem to have been adjusted.” –Asian Correspondent

Fivefold increase in Peru: Peru has been shocked by a total of 225 sensitive earthquakes, during 2012, Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP) reported Monday. Hernando Tavera, head of IGP’s Seismology said in statements to Andina news agency that the highest percentage of earthquakes, probably 70 percent, was centered off the coast of Peru. He noted that mostly the cities of Arequipa, Ica and Lima, in Peru’s central region and southern Peruvian coast, were the most affected by the several earthquakes. Tavera added that recent earthquakes occurring off the coast, from Tumbes to Tacna, which is the area of highest risk to be affected by a major earthquake and where the subsurface tectonic plates are constantly moving. “It happens that offshore is exactly where the Nazca plate colliding head-on with the South American plate, and there is the problem,” he told Andina news agency. The IGP only reports the tremors sensitive to the population, but the not sensitive are usually two to three daily. According to Lima Easy, only 45 seismic events were listed for all of 2011. –Andina, Limaeasy

This prophecy has been known for centuries, but if it's accurate, if being the key here, the next Pope will be the last in the line, and will be named or linked closely to the title "Peter the Roman". You can read more about it here.

This is tragically becoming routine in the countires that NATO, primarily the U.S, Great Britain and France, have overthrown (or are in the process) existing rulers. U.S. tax dollars fund these "liberation fighters" (terrorists), which in turn use their newfound freedom and weapons on local Christians.

Therefore, it's not a stretch to say the U.S. government, Democrat and Republican, are anti-Christian.

Christian Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped and beheaded by rebel fighters in northern town of Ras Al-Ayn on the Turkish border

News came as pro-government forces celebrated their victory against rebels near Aleppo Airport

Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists.

The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.

She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to be a father.

Volatile fighting: The news of the kidnapping and beheading of Mr Arbashe came as pro-government forces celebrated their victory against rebels at the Air Defence Base in Tal Hassil near Aleppo Airport last night

Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix said: ‘His only crime was his brother criticised the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.’

There have been a growing number of accounts of atrocities carried out by rogue elements of the Syrian Free Army, which opposes dictator Bashar al-Assad and is recognised by Britain and the West as the legitimate leadership.

Sister Agnes-Miriam, mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated, has condemned Britain and the west for supporting the rebels despite growing evidence of human rights abuses. Murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery are becoming commonplace, she says.

‘The free and democratic world is supporting extremists,’ Sister Agnes-Miriam said from her sanctuary in Lebanon. ‘They want to impose Sharia Law and create an Islamic state in Syria.’

Fatal opinion: The man's brother had criticised the behaviour of members of the Free Syrian Army, seen here during heavy clashes with government forces north of Aleppo earlier this month

The 60-year-old Carmelite nun claims the west has turned a blind eye to growing evidence of a ‘fifth column’ of fanatics within the rag-tag ranks that make up the Free Syrian Army that they back to oust Assad.

One of the most effective fighting forces is the Jabat Al-Nusra, which has an ideology similar to Al Qaeda.

‘The uprising has been hijacked by Islamist mercenaries who are more interested in fighting a holy war than in changing the government,’ she said.

‘It has turned into a sectarian conflict. One in which Christians are paying a high price.’

At least this particular group seems to admit they are a religion...one without common sense, but still a religious belief.Nanette Asimov

L-R, Jeremy Jimenez and Chaplain John Figdor listen to guest speaker and author Dave Fitzgerald give a talk titled, "The Heathen's Guide to the Holiday," at Stanford Univeristy on Monday, December 3, 2012. Figdor is the professional leader of the Humanist Community group at Stanford. The group of humanists, atheists, agnostics and their supporters met on Monday, November 3, 2012, at Stanford University.
Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle / SF

"People are shocked when I tell them," Figdor said. "But atheist, agnostic and humanist students suffer the same problems as religious students - deaths or illnesses in the family, questions about the meaning of life, etc. - and would like a sympathetic nontheist to talk to."

Figdor, 28, is one of a growing number of faith-free chaplains at universities, in the military and in the community who believe that nonbelievers can benefit from just about everything religion offers except God.

Hired in July by the Humanist Community at Stanford, a nonprofit group independent of the university, Figdor is one of 18 "professional leaders" at the Office of Religious Life who typically work with sectarian student groups that pay their salaries. A graduate theological degree is required for the job, and the leader is entitled to office space on campus, a parking spot and a Stanford e-mail address. The leaders guide students in whatever way is needed, whether offering advice or organizing events.
But Figdor's flock already extends beyond Stanford.

"A lot of people go back to religious organizations when they start having children," whether or not they believe in God, because religion offers community, Figdor said.

"What I really want to do is create a vibrant, humanist community here in Silicon Valley, where people can find babysitters for their kids and young people can meet each other."

Unless the rice you buy is certified organic, or comes specifically from a farm that tests its rice crops for genetically modified (GM) traits, you could be eating rice tainted with actual human genes. The only known GMO with inbred human traits in cultivation today, a GM rice product made by biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience is currently being grown on 3,200 acres in Junction City, Kansas — and possibly elsewhere — and most people have no idea about it.

Since about 2006,Ventria has been quietly cultivating rice that has been genetically modified (GM) with genes from the human liver for the purpose of taking the artificial proteins produced by this “Frankenrice” and using them in pharmaceuticals. With approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),Ventria has taken one of the most widely cultivated grain crops in the world today, and essentially turned it into a catalyst for producing new drugs.

Originally, the cultivation of this GM rice, which comes in three approved varieties (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/biotech_ea_permits.html), was limited to the laboratory setting. But in 2007,Ventriadecided to bring the rice outdoors. The company initially tried to plant the crops in Missouri, but met resistance fromAnheuser-Buschand others, which threatened to boycott all rice from the state in the event that Ventria began planting its rice within state borders (http://todayyesterdayandtomorrow.wordpress.com).

So Ventria‘s GM rice eventually ended up in Kansas, where it is presumably still being grown for the purpose of manufacturing drugs on 3,200 acres in Junction City. And while this GM rice with added human traits has never been approved for human consumption, it is now being cultivated in open fields where the potential for unrestrained contamination and spread of its unwanted, dangerous GM traits is virtually a given.